05.02.13 | day 9 building community ii

So the day comes when we got the gallery space for exhibiting our work and make the 1:1 mock up. But our workshop is full of Bollywood drama, because whatever you don’t expect has to happen. We have fought the material companies who backed out at the last moment, cops have confiscated some materials or potters not getting our material and what not. So today it was the thunderstorm, delivery of mud was cancelled, all our workplace was soaking in water and all our experiments were washed away. It seemed like a new beginning. We start our day with shifting the mud bricks and the bamboo frame inside the exhibition hall. After a lot of complaints from the adjacent class we are requested to do the noisy things like the drilling and hammering in the basement. Me and Jai work on finishing the bamboo structure which we think can break any moment. Meanwhile Tyler preferred working on the jute frames with Nirali. Di, Dhivya, peter and Kritika started building the Mud wall inside the hall with the Help of Ivar, clem and dhruv. They kept on evolving the space as they placed the bricks and mud mortar on them. Ivar finally came to help us finish the bamboo frame which was being too difficult because of the aligned drilling. That is drilling three thick bamboo’s at the same point. It does not sound hard but it was the most difficult thing ever.

After a lot of mental and physical stress we managed to complete the main bamboo structure by 5 pm. As expected we were supposed to finish it within 20 minutes and help others with making the mud brick wall. The next task was to install the horizontal members which support the jute in the frame. After a lot of brainstorming we agreed upon making holes in the column and just pushing the thinner bamboo inside it. After breaking two hammers and two drill bits we completed the task by seven. The tool of the day was Ivar’s Swiss knife. This tool managed every small detail from the filing of the hole to going deeper.

It was ready, after a lot of prayer, a lot of hard work and a lot of stress we finished it. As decided in afternoon we headed for dinner to halidrams. It was a much needed break. We came back around 8 15 and were back to business. Four to five layers of brick were laid after coming back. Me, Jai started shifting the bricks. It was 10: 40 pm when Ivar, Kritika, Jai, Dhivya nad me finally called it an off. We placed the bamboo structure on the boundary wall and were ready to go home.

A lot was completed but a lot was still remaining. Everybody is working hard now but i am sure it will be worth it. With the passing days strangers have become good friends, we now know a lot about each other. Sharing our different experiences all together the experience of this workshop is very enlightening. Not just using different tools, or mud walls or joints or bamboo we learned things beyond education, wisdom and knowledge. Thank you, WORKSHOP Architecture, for giving me this opportunity.

the walls are coming up…

growing!

clem hasn’t completely given up, she’s just mixing mud mortar on the floor